China trade war

[sakaqb46]

Seems to me China cannot win a trade war with the US since it doesn't buy enough from the US.

 

[mugzy]

True statement however China owns a ridiculous amount of US treasuries which could complicate things if they chose to.

 

[.X.]

When Bush put tariffs on steel in 2002, it eventually came back to haunt us with other manufacturing plants in our country raising prices.

 

[FlyingDragon]

China would crush us in a trade war, they own us.....

 

[rawdeal]

wonder if they'll put a tariff on anything we use (lol . . . I think)

 

[sityslicker1]

China would crush us in a trade war, they own us.....

Exactly why I'm glad this was finally addressed by the Trump administration. China owns are ass. We need to work to strengthen our own economy.

However I'm very grateful for all the wonderful steroids and generic gh that comes from China that make my life more pleasurable lol..plus my new Nikes. We can leave those just like it is now please.

 

[FlyingDragon]

They create too many goods we need and use, goods that cant be created here.....

 

[tommyguns2]

I think it's more accurate to say that China and the US each need one another. No one "wins" a trade war. Rather, everyone loses. The question then is who loses more? I suppose it depends on what you want to measure.

I think that our present trade relationship with China could be more balanced. I don't really blame China for that. Up to this point, we've been willing to allow them to manipulate their currency and protect certain segments of their economy without having to account for it. Sure, in the past, we complained about it, but ultimately we didn't do anything, so a reasonable person would say that the US didn't "really" care. Just felt the need to make some noise for political cover.

Now Trump is saying bullshit, it's not OK, and he's willing to turn over a few tables in the process to show that he really means it. If China honestly believes that Trump is willing to make it hurt for China, China will take a closer look at what it can do to appease the US and keep the lucrative trade relationship going. If they don't believe Trump will do anything, then they'll do what they did with Obama (basically ignore him).

I once heard someone say that in any negotiation, in order for the other side to really negotiate in good faith, that opposing side must truly believe that you're willing to walk away with nothing and scrap the whole thing. If they don't believe it, you'll just get window dressing concessions that aren't substantively meaningful.

I'm one of the first people to say that Trump is a stinker and I don't like his style. But in my opinion he's got a better read on his opponents than Obama ever did. And I think that all of Trump's antics make it really hard for the Chinese, and Iranians, and North Koreans to know what they're dealing with. In my view, that's a good thing, and ultimately can help us make genuine progress in each of these areas.

 

[JR Ewing]

Theoretically, China wins (not loses) the trade war because of the fact that they buy much less from us than we do from them - if we assume more or less equal % tariffs on both sides, and their much larger population buying far less from us than they sell to us, they win in theory.

But the fact is that they do need us more than we need them. We could survive if China suddenly collapsed or disappeared off the face of the earth.

As for China owning us, that's a popular misconception that just isn't reality. They own barely 5% of our debt, and their own debt to GDP is nearly 300% - which makes our own ~ 100% debt to GDP seem rather low by comparison. They have had their share of problems in recent years.

https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/080615/china-owns-us-debt-how-much.asp

 

[JR Ewing]

I do wish Trump would be less bombastic with some of his rhetoric. Although it's not the end of the world in the grand scheme of things, it's not such a great thing to see the Dow fall several percentage points in a single day because of "trade war fears". I'm a big boy - I can take it, and make money on both sides. But many people cannot.

 

[tommyguns2]

They own barely 5% of our debt, and their own debt to GDP is nearly 300% - which makes our own ~ 100% debt to GDP seem rather low by comparison. They have had their share of problems in recent years.

https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/080615/china-owns-us-debt-how-much.asp

I had no idea of their debt load.. no one ever talks about that. I know Japan's debt is also quite high.

 

[ITAWOLF]

We could dollar for dollar offset bond interest we owe China with interest, principal and penalties China owes us in monies besides have you seen the yuan?
china is selling alot of revenue it holds to buy more yuan

i have a family member that lives n works over there and its not as pretty as people think...esp on the food side